Sign in

prairieamorpha.bsky.social

@prairieamorpha.bsky.social
153 followers 239 following 10 posts

MN Prairie Conservation. Plant first ecology and biodiversity. Prairie conservation includes protecting archeological sites!

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
West St Paul is due south of St Paul is because the normally N/S river turns E/W there. If you were a steamboat captain going north, everything to your left is just "west", everything to your right is "east." It made sense 150 years ago 😂
map of st paul turned 90 degrees on its side, with the river pointing north. True north points to the right. East St Paul is on the right, West St Paul is on the left. Yes its confusing.
3202
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
BikeMN @bikemn.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Cars are a self-defeating arms race. Safety and convenience are purchased for their occupants at everyone else's expense. It doesn't have to be this way. arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08...
arstechnica.com
How headlights got brighter, whiter, and more blinding after dark
Automotive lights are better than they've ever been, but there's a trade-off.
0196
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Racket @racketmn.com · 04/08/2026
Pro-crypto PACs spent over $1M getting Craig reelected. In turn, she has become crypto's best friend in Congress. racketmn.com/is-angie-cra...
racketmn.com
Is Angie Craig Fighting for Minnesota or the Crypto Industry That's Enriching Trump? - Racket
The crypto industry spent over $1M getting Craig reelected. In turn, she has become its best friend in Congress.
14116
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
“Regretful“ Trump voters always remind me of the James Baldwin quote: “People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state on innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.”
101413305
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Robert Hirschfeld @rfhirschfeld.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Pesticides, fertilizer, and habitat loss are accelerating bird decline in ag-intensive regions. Mike Ward, a professor at University of Illinois, "said he knows farmers are concerned about the environment, including bird loss." I'm curious what data led him to this conclusion.
ipmnewsroom.org
Bird populations are shrinking faster in agriculture hotspots— including the Midwest, study finds - IPM Newsroom
New research out of Ohio State University found the rate of bird decline was quicker in areas with more intense agricultural practices.
1102
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
The worst part of any bike ride is cars.
251224131
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Biologists are racing to save America’s freshwater mussels—the water-filtering keystone species that once filled the country’s rivers and streams—from extinction
scientificamerican.com
The baffling ecological disaster that’s killing America’s freshwater mussels
Biologists are racing to save America’s freshwater mussels—the water-filtering keystone species that once filled the country’s rivers and streams—from extinction
14438185
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Chris Jones @theswinerepublic.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Abt 2.5 million lbs of nitrate-nitrogen will pass by the town of Wapello in the Iowa River today. About 1.6 million lbs will pass through keosauqua in the Des Moines River. 2 rivers, 1 day, 4.1 million lbs. That’s equal to contents of 1200 anhydrous ammonia nurse tanks that you see in fields now.
32014
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
MPR News @mprnews.org · 11/03/2026
There are harmful chemicals in Minnesota’s water, and environmental groups think the state isn’t doing enough to fix the problem. They’re making their views known during the period of public comment on the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s rules for protecting groundwater from nitrates.
mprnews.org
Nitrates are polluting Minnesota’s water. Environmental groups say the state isn’t doing enough
The public comment window will soon close on the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s rules for protecting groundwater from nitrates, which can be detrimental to human health in large amounts.
03310
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 07/03/2026
Imagine all the cool, fast trains we could have with the billions we spend on bombs.
274172766
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Claire Zagorski, PhD, MSc, EMT-P @clairezagorski.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
[TW: graphic fracture, sound of breaking bone] Sen Tim Sheehy (R-Montana) badly breaking the arm of a Marine veteran protesting the war Iran.
103992044493
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
this is what they said it would be like under socialism
1050191524303
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇
nature.com
White House stalls release of approved US science budgets
The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.
221130758
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
When you have an audience or a business you have to ensure that you always provide a lot more value to people than you extract from them. If you don't then, long term, it all breaks down. Young people I talk to today...they feel like the whole entire world has broken this contract with them.
1053488356
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
stevegrove.bsky.social @stevegrove.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Crowd-sourced data gives us a lens into how big the ICE surge was in MN compared to other places, visualized today in the Minnesota @startribune.com www.startribune.com/is-ice-reall...
5271122
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Robert Hirschfeld @rfhirschfeld.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
Midwest Democrats offer no vision for the greatest soil on Earth beyond strip mining it for corn to burn in gas tanks.
273
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 02/02/2026
Dr Oz on rural healthcare: "There's no question about it, whether you want it or not -- the best way to help some of these communities is gonna be AI-based avatars"
9361371371
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
MisterMPLS @mistermpls.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
The group bike ride for Alex Pretti is about to depart in Minneapolis, stopping at his memorial, then Renee Good’s, and finishing at the VFW. If you can join, hop on anywhere. It’s a warm 17° & sunny! I’ve never seen this many cyclists for a group ride. ⚡️✊🏽⚡️🚲⚡️✊🏽⚡️ #RIPPretti
8850311401
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 31/01/2026
This is just insane. It’s only a matter of time before DHS kills another innocent person here. (clip via MPR and @davidjbier.bsky.social on X)
17432908813126
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
They broke Alex Pretti's rib while he was supporting his neighbors. And then he came right back out the next week. We've had an entire administration cosplaying as warriors, all for the man they just killed to be the realest example of one.
5364105
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Robin Bougie @robinbougie.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Comics retailing legend Greg Ketter standing up to ICE in Minneapolis. Yes, that's tear gas. He's 70 years old.
109108562645
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 25/01/2026
🚨 NEW — Statement from the family of Alex Pretti: "We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital... 1/
"We are heartbroken but also very angry.
Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman.
The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed.
Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man."
14044111461
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Indivisible Twin Cities @indivistwincities.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
In the Twin Cities, this man speaks for all of us today.
05021
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 24/01/2026
Federal law enforcement agents shot and killed a man in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 according to local police officials. DHS told Fox News that the man was “armed with a gun”. A video of the shooting appears to show that a gun was taken from the man before the first shot was fired. x.com/BillMelugin_...
22253072692
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
molly conger @socialistdogmom.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
they're executing moms and nurses in the street. they're using preschoolers as bait. they're stealing people's dads and grandmas and children. they're tear gassing babies. they're staking out schools. there is no remedy but abolition. any proposal that doesn't start there is an act of violence.
241273969835
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Jacqueline Sweet @jsweetli.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Alex Pretti, the man killed by federal agents today in Minneapolis, appears to have been a registered nurse, an athlete, a son and a brother, with ties to Colorado and Wisconsin. Here is a photo he used for several accounts.
415147696694
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Leigh Kunkel @leighkunkel.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
People are being murdered because our politicians think their reelection campaign is more important than our lives
12578192
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Jay Kirell @jasonkirell.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Two women trained as first responders were abducted by three ICE agents. One of the agents starts seizing. The other two don’t know what to do. The women jump into action and save the agent’s life, only to be re-handcuffed and processed. www.startribune.com/detained-by-...
startribune.com
Detained by ICE, two women became first responders during agent’s seizure
The women say they guided agents through the emergency, later raising concerns about medical protocols, weapons safety and accountability.
33389304811
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
max nesterak @maxnesterak.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
It’s -9 degrees. Downtown Minneapolis is packed for the anti-ICE rally and the crowd keeps growing
7903708410804
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Democracy Now! @democracynow.org · 22/01/2026
School officials say ICE agents have detained four children in the Minneapolis area in recent weeks, including a 5-year-old boy named Liam Ramos, who was detained on Tuesday along with his father as he returned home from preschool.
13269125
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Margaret Killjoy @margaret.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
I came to Minneapolis to report on what's going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is "just what is the scale of the resistance?" After all, we're all used to the news calling Portland a "war zone" or whatever when it's just some protests in one part of town.
142153665715
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional! ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.
The Gravamen of the Disclosure

4. The gravamen of the disclosure is as follows: 
a. By memorandum dated May 12, 2025 (“the May 12 Memo”), Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons authorizes ICE agents to forcibly enter into certain people’s homes without a judicial warrant, consent, or an emergency.

b. Specifically, in the May 12 Memo, the Acting ICE Director authorized ICE Agents to rely on Form I-205 (which is not a judicial warrant) to enter the residence of an alien subject to a final order of deportation, without consent, including by “a necessary and reasonable amount of force.”2c. While addressed to “All ICE Personnel,” in practice the May 12 Memo has not been formally distributed to all personnel. Instead, the May 12 Memo has been provided to select DHS officials who are then directed to verbally brief the new policy for action. Those supervisors then show the Memo to some employees, like our clients, and direct them to read the Memo and return it to the supervisor.
11292690715898
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Minnesota Star Tribune @startribune.com · 22/01/2026
Here’s a video of the incident captured by Ben Luhmann. bsky.app/profile/star...
29544
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.
91147768500
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Leah Millis @leahmillis.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Today in St. Paul: A house is raided by ICE agents and other law enforcement officers in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S., days after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, January 18, 2026. REUTERS/Leah Millis
Federal agents break a door down during a raid on a home in St Paul.A man is removed from a home in St Paul by ERO and ICE agents.A baby looks out the window after their home was raided by federal law enforcement in St Paul and a man was removed.
601268499
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Status Coup News @statuscoupnews.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
🚨BREAKING: Multiple fires have broken after ICE unleashed ANOTHER ONSLAUGHT of flash bang grenades and chemical gas at unarmed Minneapolis protesters in WAR-LIKE attack. LIVE NOW ⬇️
741876923
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Rusty Foster @rusty.todayintabs.com · 26/12/2025
My whole life we’ve been told that The US is simply too big to have high speed rail
China overlaid on the US. China is bigger.
744641350
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Streets.mn @streets.mn · 23/12/2025
"What happened on the Flats is part of a pattern that played out across American cities in the mid-20th century: highways, urban renewal and industrial redevelopment converged to remove working-class and often non-white neighborhoods." streets.mn/2025/12/23/r...
streets.mn
Rerouted Lives: How Route 52 Transformed West St. Paul
In the 1960s, St. Paul’s West Side Flats were razed for highway and industrial development: displacing families, shuttering businesses, and leaving lasting social, economic and cultural scars.
063
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Chris Jones @theswinerepublic.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
www.thegazette.com/staff-column...
thegazette.com
Opinion: Cleaning up Iowa's water isn't about hating farmers
The North Raccoon River routinely has elevated levels of nitrate contamination.   Buy Photo So, you were expecting the secretary …
1182
prairieamorpha.bsky.social @prairieamorpha.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Get out!
040
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Susanna Shore, Author @susannashore.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
I spotted this on Mastodon and I find it horrible, not least for the speed with which this has happened.
A post on Mastodon by small cypress (@small_cypress@indieweb.social):

As an art teacher I was worried AI would come up as an issue of "why should I learn how to draw when I can use AI instead."

But the real issue is that my middle schoolers CONSTANTLY believe all art I show them is AI. Digital art. Photography. Oil paintings from the Western canon. "A human couldn't do that"

Being convinced that humans can't make great art is kind of terrifying
8657422001
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
High Country News @highcountrynews.org · 07/11/2025
A heavy music festival in Blackfeet Nation this summer was abut more than just music – it was a protective ceremony to shelter Indigenous youth from suicidal distress. buff.ly/aQQC7EX
hcn.org
Heavy metal is healing teens on the Blackfeet Nation - High Country News
In response to youth suicides, teachers show students the power of headbanging at Fire in the Mountains festival.
018850
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 13/10/2025
Just west of Fort Qu’Appelle in Saskatchewan, the Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation is working across the US border to revive centuries-old trade routes as part of a new Indigenous-governed trade corridor. From our friends at @nationalobserver.com:
motherjones.com
Indigenous nations plan a tariff-free trade corridor across the US-Canada border
“We’re not begging for crumbs anymore. We’re demanding what’s rightly ours."
15856268
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
“In London cyclists now outnumber cars in the City by 2 to 1. Paris, where they now outnumber motorists across the whole city, is catching up with Europe’s traditional bike capitals, Amsterdam & Copenhagen…In Copenhagen, bikes account for almost half of commuter trips to work/school.” @economist.com
economist.com
Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport
Pedal power is booming, spinning up a new culture war
7554149
prairieamorpha.bsky.social @prairieamorpha.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
Anyone have opinions on enrolling in graduate school in the near future? Thinking of either botany/plant ecology or archeology. Interests include native plant interactions with environment, glacial geomorphology, landowner attitudes towards conservation, insect interactions with plants, etc.
110
prairieamorpha.bsky.social @prairieamorpha.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
thetyee.ca/Culture/2018...
thetyee.ca
On Ecological Amnesia | The Tyee
It’s why we forget the passenger pigeon, the reign of the buffalo. But not all of us suffer it.
000
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Americans used to know birds by thousands of unique local folk names. Ruddy Ducks alone were called dummy duck, dinky, dipper, dopper, dumb-bird, and god-damn. My latest piece is on the joy of folk names and losing them to the bureaucratic formalization of knowledge about birds.
birdhistory.substack.com
Chunk Ducks, Blatherskites, Butterballs, and Slug-toots
These used to be folk names for American birds. Where did they all go?
47121
Reposted by @prairieamorpha.bsky.social
Layla ᎴᎳ @laylajohnston.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Support nurseries selling native plants. “But commercial nurseries that sell hundreds of different invasives are actually the primary pathway of invasive plant introduction.” www.umass.edu/news/article...
umass.edu
Study Finds Plant Nurseries are Exacerbating the Climate-driven Spread of 80% of Invasive Species | UMass Amherst
New research from UMass Amherst is the first to precisely map role of horticulture in spreading invasives, projecting ranges under 2 degrees Celsius of warming.
1407